Coffee Harvesting, Las Nubes - Elevation 6000 ft
Eadweard J. Muybridge
American, born England. 1830–1904
1875
A 1875 albumen silver print by Eadweard Muybridge that documents coffee pickers at Las Nubes, aiming to record the agricultural landscape and the labor of harvesting with clear, panoramic composition.
What strikes you is the rhythmic spread of low coffee bushes dotted with small, pale-clad figures on ladders and carrying baskets, set against taller trees and a broad sky rendered in the warm tonal detail of 19th-century photography.
The image exemplifies how early photographic practice was used to document agricultural production and labor—making visible global trade landscapes and serving scientific, commercial, and imperial interests while expanding documentary composition techniques.
Medium
Albumen silver print
Dimensions
5 3/8 × 9 3/8" (13.6 × 23.8 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Transferred from The Museum of Modern Art Library, New York
Accession
182.1964.100
Palette
Exhibitions
